Having designed many innovative buildings around the world, Thornton Tomasetti is taking its next venture to a far away land. As one of five teams selected by NASA to produce a prototype for a 3D printed habitat for a mission to Mars and deep space exploration, the multi-phase and year design competition seeks to develop new technologies to create sustainable housing in space and on Earth.

The structure needs to be a human habitation space that provides protection against the Martian weather, made with local materials or a combination of recycled waste from the mission, requiring minimal human involvement. Due to the atmosphere pressure and weather, the outer shell will adapt to temperature shifts whilst the pressurised internal shell will create an internal atmospheric pressure needed for human occupancy.

This part of NASA’s Centennial Challenge, the $3.15-million Mars habitat competition, was launched in 2014, inviting businesses to help develop solutions to problems of interest to the space agency and the U.S. As the team advances to Phase 3 out of 5, experts from NASA, academia and the construction industry will be judging the entries on criteria as functionality, innovation, habitability and constructability.

The Empire State Building has unveiled the first phase of its new Observatory as part of the decade-long Empire State ReBuilding project. The new entrance will provide visitors with more space and a seamless flow exclusive to Observatory guests, repositioning 4.2 million visitors from the Fifth Avenue entrance, and improving the Empire State Building’s tenants’ experience.

Currently in its first phase, the project is being brought to life by a cross-disciplinary team including Thornton Tomasetti as they conceive and curate a new Observatory experience. The new entrance is the first part of the redevelopment project expected to be completed by the end of 2019, hinting at what is expected to follow, from a new lighting ceremony installation to digital hosts.

Once in the new entrance, guests will use a grand staircase divided in two around a two-story architectural replica of the Empire State Building whilst self-service kiosks will simplify how the myriad of choices is presented to the guests.

On June 22nd, it was lights out across 29 Thornton Tomasetti offices in seven countries to show our support for Daylight Hour. The annual global social media campaign organised by the Building Energy Exchange aims to promote energy conservation by encouraging the use of natural lighting from 12 noon to 1 p.m., a time of peak energy demand.